


The Choices We Make

by debwalsh



Series: Bingo-Bingo [14]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate History, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Bucky Barnes, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes & Peggy Carter Friendship, Bucky Barnes Feels, Canon Divergence - No Hydra Takeover, First Dance, First Time, M/M, Marvel Bingo 2019, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Canon Compliant, Post-World War II, Red Room (Marvel), Rescue Missions, Roommates, Steve Rogers Feels, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-01-24 14:47:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18573655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/debwalsh/pseuds/debwalsh
Summary: When the option to go back in time is on offer, Steve Rogers has some requirements.  And he’s okay with the fact that History will be rewritten.There are no Endgame spoilers here.  Speculation, wish fulfillment, what I’d like to see and where my imagination has taken me, yeah.  Come with me on my journey through possibility.This is my 100th Stucky Story posted here on AO3!  And what a doozy it’s gonna be.This will also fill several squares on my Marvel Bingo - the squares will be noted in each chapter.





	1. Canon Divergence

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I know I have over 100 works on AO3. But of those works, some of them are art for other people’s stories, a couple of non-Stucky pieces, and a couple of pieces where the boys are mentioned but not present. This is truly the 100th actual Stucky story I am posting to AO3.
> 
> Chapter 1 fills my Canon Divergence square (A1) on my Marvel Bingo card.

In the end, all it took was saying, “December 16, 1991.”   
  
Tony had looked at him then with such ... disgust, he supposed.  But he wasn’t going to back down about this.   
  
“Hydra doesn’t create their Winter Soldier, a lot of good people don’t die, Tony.  Including Howard and your Mom.”   
  
Tony’s jaw tightened, the muscles jumping as he ground his teeth together.   
  
Steve knew what he was asking.     
  
Change history.   
  
Change it in a massive way.   
  
Because that’s what a winter soldier was.  A small, quiet ripple that created massive waves over time.   
  
Remove the Winter Soldier from history’s equation and ... everything they knew would change.   
  
“This could change history for the worse,” Tony finally said.   
  
“It’s nuts,” Bruce added.  “You’re playing God, Steve.”   
  
“I can’t go back there and let him die.”   
  
“Maybe that’s exactly what you need to do.  Let him die. Don’t let Hydra get a hold of him.  Let him die and burn his corpse.”   
  
“That has the same effect on history.  With no upside.”   
  
Tony grimaced and blew a frustrated breath out his nose.  “The impacts to the timeline are incalculable. I mean, even JARVIS, Friday, and every AI ever conceived couldn’t calculate the ripple effect letting Barnes escape Hydra could have on time itself.”   
  
“Strange won’t be happy,” Bruce suggested.   
  
“Well, finally an argument for going ahead with this insane plan.”   
  
“If you had a choice between Pepper dying, and preserving a timeline where a lot of really horrible shit happened, what would you do?”   
  
“I’d chastise you for your language, but I realize now’s not the time to be flippant.  I’d choose Pepper. In a heartbeat. No contest.”   
  
“Then you have to understand that’s what Buck means to me.”   
  
Bruce and Tony looked at Steve for a long, silent beat, each of them blinking slowly.  Finally it was Bruce who spoke.   
  
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”   
  
“Did Captain America just come out of the closet?”   
  
“Steve Rogers did, yes.  I’m not saying the feeling was ever reciprocated.  I don’t expect it to be. But Buck is for me what Pepper is for you.  It was one thing when I thought there was nothing I could do to save him.  But I go back in time, armed with a suit? I can catch him before he hits the ground.  I can save him. And get the Tesseract. And together, we can bring Hydra down before it has a chance to infiltrate SHIELD.  The SSR, but what will become SHIELD.”   
  
“How is this any different from me, us, creating Ultron?”   
  
“You’re on your own with your murderbot, Tony,” Bruce waved him off.   
  
“Ultron was a sociopath.  I’m not. I’m not saying the results will be perfect.  But Hydra’s goal was always destabilization. Make people crave order only they could provide, and then subjugate humanity.  The world we live in today is full of distrust and hatred. Distrust and hatred that Hydra’s been stoking for over 70 years. i doubt it’ll create a Utopia.  But what if it made the world a little better? A little safer? Take Hydra out of the equation, what happens with the Cold War? Vietnam? The Gulf? Take the Winter Soldier out of the equation, and Kennedy lives - both of them.  Martin Luther King, Jr. Howard and Maria Stark. The Winter Soldier’s strikes were surgical, removing people who had the potential to do real good in the world, to bring about lasting, stable change. Peace. Imagine a world in which that gets to happen.”   
  
“You’re talking about marooning yourself in the past.”   
  
“I’m talking about living the life I should have led.”   
  
“There is the possibility that you won’t age, you know,” Bruce said then.  “The cellular renewal triggered by the serum ... you might not age at all, and that would certainly be suspicious.  I’ve looked at the data that Shuri collected on James - Zola at least got that part right.”   
  
“Probably because his serum was based off Schmidt’s, which was Erskine’s before he tweaked it.  So we’d have to move every so often. I’d go back with enough information to start to build a nest egg, funds to cover the mission, then our identities as needed.”   
  
“And what about the Valkyrie?  Does that still go in the drink?”   
  
“I think it has to.  But Howard won’t find the Tesseract.”   
  
“No?”   
  
“No.  Because I’ll recover it first.  So it never falls into SHIELD’s hands.  They’ve proved they can’t be trusted with it.”   
  
“But we need it for the gauntlet -“   
  
“I‘ll make sure you have it when you need it -“   
  
“But it’s the Tesseract that allows the creation of Carol Danvers, the Captain Marvel thing,” Bruce exclaimed, his fingers digging into his scalp in frustration.   
  
“Time travel is one big fucking headache.  Bruce is right. Take the Tesseract away from SHIELD, Mar-Vel doesn’t develop the engine that blew up to create Carol’s power.”   
  
“Take the Tesseract out of play, and you don’t have the Chitauri invasion.”   
  
“No Chitauri invasion, no mind stone.  No mind stone, no Vision. No Wanda.”   
  
“No experimentation on human subjects, on kids.  No Ultron. A lot less blood on all our hands.”   
  
“Whether you change history or not, bad things happen.  The question is, which are badder? History as we know it, or the history that will rewrite itself after you’re done?”   
  
“Oh, one last thing. The US Government kept a supply of my blood.  When I’m taking out Hydra, I plan to destroy that as well.”   
  
“I think I finally heard something I like.”   
  
“Oh?  Why, pray tell,” Tony snapped.   
  
“Recreating the serum.  The Army was obsessed over it.  Ross especially. But if there are no specimens, if there is no more of Steve’s blood left to try to extrapolate the serum from ... Bruce Banner never does something stupid with gamma radiation, and the Hulk is never born.”   
  
Tony opened his mouth to respond, but closed it again with a snap.  There was no argument for Bruce to become the Hulk that wasn’t blatantly selfish.   
  
“We’d never meet.”   
  
“Well, if I hadn’t experimented myself out of the scientific community, there’s every reason we might have met professionally.  And who knows - we might have hit it off and collaborated naturally.”   
  
“Or i could have drunk myself through the experience, and awakened the next morning in Tahiti.”   
  
“Look, this is all very theoretical and probably existential as well, but it doesn’t answer my immediate request.  Can you give me a suit to go back in time with?”   
  
“The nano one would be your best bet.  We’ll have to see if we can inject the implant.  If we can and it takes, then the nano tech is your best bet.  Small, lightweight, no one’s gonna know what it is until it forms around you. Self-powering with its own miniaturized arc reactor.  And it’s customizable for the task. Plus, you can choose the color scheme.”   
  
“Is that a yes?”   
  
“Let’s go to the lab and see if the injection takes.  We never know with you, the serum and all.”   
  
“Yeah, it’s always been a blessing and a curse.”   
  
“Huh.  I’ve never heard you say that before.”   
  
“But I think you understand.  Ever since the serum ... I haven’t owned my own body, have I?  Property of Uncle Sam, the Army, the SSR, then SHIELD. Then the Accords tried to take possession.”  He shook his head. “This goes the way I hope it will, I might finally have title to my own person again.”   
  
&&&   



	2. The Rescue Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Steve has travelled to the past, and now it’s time to put his plan into action. It’ll take split second timing and a whole lotta luck to accomplish Steve’s ultimate mission ... saving Bucky Barnes. Whatever it takes.
> 
> This fills my Rescue Mission square D2 of my Marvel Bingo card.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, there are no spoilers here. Just my own overwrought imagination. And my hope that these two dorks can find happiness together in some universe.

Time travel was fucked up.  No two ways about it. Completely and totally FUBAR.   
  
It was hard saying goodbye to everyone, knowing he would never see them again.  Well, he might see them again, if he lived long enough, but odds were high they wouldn’t be the same people that he knew.  They wouldn’t have shared experiences, and they wouldn’t know him the way they did now. Their odd little family would never come together.  And the world would not burn the way it did when it forged them as a team.   
  
There’d been hugs and there’d been tears.  There’d been Asgardian ale from a stash Thor had left behind a few years ago.  The pair of them had gotten spectacularly drunk together, and Thor had promised that he would remember Steve, even if Steve managed to alter the timeline.   
  
“Asgardian minds are resilient like that, you see.  It can be a curse, to see what might have been. But I trust when you have completed your mission, the fading vision of this present will shine less brightly than the future you will birth, my friend.”   
  
Even with the hope, no the promise, of saving Bucky, of subverting Hydra, it had been hard to look at them one last time, commit them to his eidetic memory, and walk away knowing he would be nothing but a symbol to them in their new future.     
  
It broke his heart and it rent his spirit.  It hurt like hell. The only thing that kept him from turning back was standing on a mountaintop, waiting for this train from hell to careen through the pass.   
  
Because that loss, that memory, that failure ... that was hell beyond measure.  And he’d lived too many lifetimes in it already.   
  
This time, Steve understood his limits, knew what he could survive.  The first time, he hadn’t known that if he’d leapt after Bucky, he would’ve survived.  They would have survived together. But this time, he not only knew, he knew what he had in the technology he’d brought back from the future.   
  
He would not fail.  Not this time. Not ever again.   
  
&&&   
  
All the intel they’d collected in 1945 was still as clear as it had been when they’d first reviewed it.  He knew where the train started, he knew precisely where the team would converge on its route. He knew where it was going, and what the SSR had planned for Zola.     
  
So he’d activated the nano suit that Tony had provided, dropping into stealth mode so he couldn’t be detected.  Then he’d boarded the train as it left its origination point, secreting himself on the roof of the car where Bucky would face the Tesseract-fueled weapon that would blast him out into the void.  The suit’s magnetic properties allowed him to remain secure without taxing his muscles or having to waste precious concentration. Instead, he was stewing in his own juices inside the damnable thing, waiting for the moment.   
  
In the distance, he could see the team waiting to rappel down to the briskly moving train, so he shifted position so he wouldn’t get in their way.  Peering over the top of the car, he watched as his past self, Gabe, and Bucky each touched down on the train, ran, crouching to keep their centers of gravity low and stable.  They each went to their appointed task, and all Steve had to do was wait. Within minutes, he’d either change history, or consign himself to a more permanent hell.   
  
&&&   
  
“Bucky, grab my hand!”   
  
The creak of metal as the bar bent, sheared, gave way.   
  
The scream as Bucky fell away, reaching for Steve, reaching for help that never came.   
  
Steve counted the next few seconds impatiently, knowing his past self had hung there, watching helplessly.  Too shocked to think, too stunned to act. Too shattered by loss. Then he heard the thud of his old boots hitting the floor of the train car, and Steve launched himself into the air, streaking downward into the deep of the ravine.     
  
Power, more power, he urged the suit silently.  Tony’s implant made certain the suit responded instantly to his mental commands, and the secondary thrusters fired, catapulting him downward.     
  
He could see Bucky now, practically feel his terror as the train disappeared from view, and the snowy, rock-strewn ground loomed ever closer.     
  
Another mental adjustment and the suit zoomed ahead, below Bucky now, then he pivoted in mid-air and rose at a gentler pace to catch his old friend safely in his arms.   
  
And then he made contact.  Bucky wasn’t falling any longer, and Steve had him wrapped in a twenty-first century thermal blanket he’d thought to bring with him, inside a shell extruded by the suit to protect him.  At the altitudes they would soon be flying, the temperature would grow dangerously cold for Buck’s exposed skin. He didn’t save him to kill him with hypothermia.    
  
But as Steve rose upward from the ravine, the panicked expression in Bucky’s face didn’t fade, only became more pronounced at the sight of the red, white, and blue metal man with the glowing disc in the middle of his chest and the weird structure that had appeared out of thin air around him.  Buck started to struggle, to escape somehow into the void, and Steve was suddenly afraid that Bucky might wrench free, might still fall into the ravine. Steve had barely thought to reveal his face when the visor retracted, showing Bucky it wasn’t some Hydra automaton who’d caught him, but the man who loved him above all else, even if he didn’t know that’s how Steve felt.   
  
“Buck, it’s me, it’s Steve!  Hold onto me, buddy, let’s get you to safety!”   
  
“Steve? But-“   
  
“Hang on now, questions later,” Steve shouted over the rush of air as he soared upward, clutching his most precious cargo.   
  
And then Bucky threw his arms around Steve’s metal-clad neck, weeping openly as Steve cradled him close and launched them both into the sky and away from the train and the Commandos.   
  
Bucky was safe, in Steve’s arms.   
  
&&&   
  
Steve had known he’d have one chance to get the rescue operation right, and one chance only.  He’d planned where to board the train to avoid detection but to be positioned to act as soon as Bucky fell.   
  
He’d also selected his flight path carefully after reviewing records with Friday’s help.  For years, his eidetic memory of this day had been a curse. Today it enabled him to intercept Bucky’s plunge into the ravine, fly him to safety, all while avoiding Hydra, the Luftwaffe, and Allies alike.  The nano particles making up the suit ran in stealth mode, so the rudimentary radar in use now wouldn’t register them, and the way the little robots refracted light masked them from visual identification. They were literally invisible.   
  
“Steve, not that I’m not grateful, but what the fuck, pal?” Bucky asked after they’d been airborne for a while.   
  
“I’ll explain everything, Buck.  I promise. Let me just focus on getting us both to safety, huh?”   
  
“Yeah, okay.  How much longer, though?  Cos I gotta tell ya, I gotta take a leak somethin’ fierce.”   
  
“Should’n’a had that last coffee back at base camp.”   
  
“Should’n’a made it just the way I like it.”   
  
“You know I always aim to please.”   
  
Bucky snorted at that.  “Dream on, pal. Dream on.  Seriously, though -“   
  
“We should be in Swiss air space soon.  We’ll touch down then.”   
  
“And then back to Britain?”   
  
“We’ll talk when we land, okay?”   
  
“You bet we will.”   
  
&&&   
  
In the days leading up to the raid on the train, Steve had had the opportunity to do some research and reconnaissance.  He’d identified a small town within the perimeter of the National Redoubt, the Swiss military installations located high in the Alps.  If they could get inside the perimeter without detection, they would be out of Nazi - and Hydra - reach, on neutral ground, at least long enough to regroup and make some decisions about their immediate futures.  The fact that he’d purchased a hunter’s cabin within the Redoubt to use as a home base would help. They’d need a place of safety to recoup, to plan. To return to between sorties.   
  
As happy as Steve was with his success so far, the conversation he knew he had to have with Bucky was not something he was looking forward to.   
  
What if Buck didn’t believe him? What if he refused to cooperate?  Steve’s plan meant that Buck could never go home again, could never see his Ma, his sisters, his Dad.  Steve couldn’t force him, and just because he saved Buck’s life didn’t mean that Buck actually owed him anything.  Because truth be told, Steve Rogers saved Bucky Barnes for very selfish reasons. And even if, after hearing the truth, Buck chose to go on without Steve ... well, it would be worth it to know that Bucky still lived.  Provided he could keep him out of Hydra’s clutches.   
  
&&&   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize mucking around with the timeline could have unforeseen consequences. Some of our beloved Avengers could end up never being born, or drastically altered. Steve knows it too when he departs the present. But remember ... whatever it takes.
> 
> Thanks so much for the comments and kudos! I hope you continue to enjoy - and I’d love to hear your theories of where this is going!


	3. Roommates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Steve and Bucky regroup, reconnect, and reflect on what’s happened.
> 
> This chapter fills the A3 square of my Marvel Bingo, Roommates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kind of feel that after First Avenger, and the way in which Bucky adapted to Steve’s new status, a world where Hydra created death beams and armored men, Bucky is able to go with the flow and accept a lot that others of his era or even today would find impossible. His capacity for, “Yeah, that’s nuts, but let’s go with it,” is one of the many things I love about him as a character.
> 
> As for Steve Rogers, I think one of the greatest things I love about him is his moral compass. The Steve Rogers I’ve come to love would not be able to sit idle and let the world burn around him.

Steve carried the stack of split wood in and shoved the door closed behind him with a bump of his ass.  Buck stood at the stove, stirring something in a pot that smelled pretty damned appetizing considering they’d scavenged supplies from the disused hunter’s cabin just below the tree line.  He hadn’t told Bucky yet that he’d bought the place outright ... that was part of another conversation he didn’t relish having, and frankly, it would keep. For a while at least.   
  
“Still snowing?”   
  
“Yeah, practically a white out right now.”   
  
“Wood’s wet then, huh?”   
  
“I’ll stack it up by the fire, it’ll dry out,” Steve announced, letting the suit retract back into the disc hanging from a chain around his neck.  He knelt in front of the fire and placed each piece in front of the grate to catch the heat, then rubbed his hands and held them out, enjoying the warmth seeping back into his body.   
  
“Soup’s about ready.  Come sit your ass down.  If I’m starving, you must be about ready to drop, Steve.”   
  
“Yeah, I could eat.  What’d you find?”   
  
“Think it’s venison.  There’s a whole stash in the cold cellar.  Dried meats, root vegetables, even wine. Salt, too.  Whoever owns this place left it well provisioned.” Bucky ladled a healthy serving of soup into one bowl and slid it across the table while Steve sat down, then filled his own.  He sat down, and lifted his spoon, then looked at Steve. “Okay. We’re playing the domestic thing, we’re safe, we’re dry, we’re warm, and now we’re fed. You gonna tell me what’s the fuck’s going on, Steve?  You can start with that metal suit. Since when are you Flash Gordon?”   
  
Steve paused with his spoon right in front of his lips.  He opened his mouth to eat the soup, and then shook his head. “Buck Rogers would be more like it.  Only, um, in reverse.”   
  
Bucky snorted at that.  “Whaddya mean?”   
  
“Well, Buck Rogers was a man from the past who woke up in the future.”   
  
“Yeah, so?”   
  
“So, I’m a man from the future who came back to the past.”   
  
Bucky blinked slowly at that.  In any other circumstance, what Steve said sounded insane, even to his own ears, even knowing the truth.  But they were both enhanced human beings, super soldiers created by German scientists, there was the suit Steve wore, and of course, all the insanity that was Hydra.  Schmidt’s facilities and the horrors they created had altered their perception of possible.   
  
Bucky swallowed a mouthful of soup, and looked up at Steve. “So what, there are two of you now?”   
  
“For the moment.”   
  
“You can do that?  Both be in the same time?  The world doesn’t suddenly come to an end?”   
  
“It hasn’t so far.”   
  
“But why?”   
  
“I’m on a mission from the future, it’s true.  But I also couldn’t let you fall.”   
  
“And I appreciate that, pal, I do.  But if it was my time -“   
  
“It wasn’t.  You weren’t going to die.  You were going to hit the ground, nearly die.  But you wouldn’t. It was going to be much worse than dying.”   
  
Absorbing this in silence for a moment, Bucky ate automatically, his expression blank as he fed himself.  Steve let him work through it on his own, and ate with the same methodical quiet.   
  
Finally he broke the silence.  “Hydra.”   
  
“In the history that I remember, you fell, we thought you were dead.  We didn’t come back for you because we didn’t believe anyone could survive such a fall.  But Hydra did. And Zola ... he took you. And he did terrible things to you. Made you do terrible things.”   
  
“How do you know this if you didn’t come back for me?”   
  
“Because we both survived into the future. I eventually got you back, but the horrors you’d been through ... if I had to come back here, I couldn’t let it all happen again.  And I have another mission that brought me back, so ...”   
  
“And what’s to stop Hydra from trying again?”   
  
“Us.  You and me.  We’re gonna burn Hydra to the ground.  I got a plan.”   
  
Bucky smiled then.  “Well, lay it on me, champ.  Long as it’s snowing, I got time.  And I dunno about you, but I’m having seconds.  You?”   
  
&&&   
  
The cabin was dark, save for the warm light cast by the fire in the hearth.  Steve and Bucky had pulled mattresses and bedrolls from the bedrooms into the main space, and arrayed them in front of the fire.  “Just like couch cushions on the floor,” Bucky had joked, and Steve had felt like his heart would burst at that. Outside, the wind still howled through the snowstorm, but inside it was as cozy as they could make it.  If it weren’t for the war and the threat of Hydra, it would almost be like a vacation.   
  
They were both laying on their makeshift beds, staring into the fire, when Bucky said, “You realize you’re playin’ God here, Rogers.  People lived, they died, it’s already happened for you.”   
  
Steve shifted up so he was leaning on one elbow, looking at Bucky.  “Yeah. But a lot of people died who shouldn’t have. Who died only because Hydra made it happen.”   
  
Bucky’s arms were crossed beneath his head.  He turned to look at Steve then, his face in stark relief from the light of the fire.  “You mean because Hydra made me make it happen.”   
  
Steve sat up then, drawing his knees up and resting his arms across them.  “They used the Winter Soldier as a surgical instrument to eliminate specific people at specific times.  People whose destiny it was to contribute something important, something critical to the well-being of the world.  Hydra spent 70 years systematically sending the world deeper and deeper into chaos. Destabilizing countries, whole regions.  Fomenting unrest and encouraging distrust. Hate was on the rise. When you and I finally met again, when you were still under their control, they were about to unleash three massive air carriers to wipe out millions of people.  Millions. People Zola’s computer self identified as potential threats to Hydra’s world order.”   
  
Bucky listened in silence, his expression grim.   
  
“Hydra already played God, Buck.  We take them out of the mix, history moves forward under its own steam.  I know it’s not going to be perfect. People aren’t perfect. But without Hydra’s influence, they’ve at least got a chance to be better.  And whatever decisions people make are their own.”   
  
“Well, obviously I’m not gonna ask you to toss me back down that ravine, and I sure as fuck am not gonna walk up to Hydra’s base and turn myself over.  But what about the Army?”   
  
“What about it?”   
  
“Technically, I’m a deserter.”   
  
“Technically, you’re missing in action, presumed dead.  Phillips sent the letter to your folks already. Gabe packed up your stuff.  Dum Dum held a wake. Morita even sang a lament.”   
  
“Yeah, but I’m not missing anymore.  And I sure as hell ain’t dead. If I get caught, it’s the stockade for me.”   
  
“Not if you’re on a mission under my command.”   
  
“That what this is?”   
  
“You know I wouldn’t force you.  But we can certainly treat this as a mission.  It’d be hard to explain without spilling the beans about the whole future thing, but I’d come up with something.  The thing is, if you return to the Army, to your old life, you’re exposed, vulnerable. Hydra could still get to you.  Hell, they killed Erskine in a room full of brass and security. Neither of us can go back, Buck. Not while Hydra’s still operating”   
  
Bucky absorbed this in silence, his lips set in a grim line.  The firelight flickered, casting his features in a constantly shifting play of light and shadow.  “You’re sayin’ I can’t go home. Can’t ever see my Ma, Dad, my sisters -“   
  
“Yeah, Buck, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”   
  
“And if I did ...”   
  
“You could expose not just yourself, but your family.  To Hydra. That’s why taking them out has to be our first priority.”   
  
“And if we’re successful?  I get to go home then?”   
  
“It’s always your choice, Buck.  If you feel comfortable going home, then that’s what you do.  I’ll find a way to make it right. You’re a hero, Bucky Barnes.  You want to go home, I’ll make sure everybody, right up to fucking Roosevelt, knows it.”   
  
The silence lengthened, stretching the moment out until it seemed the world would break on the thinnest filament.  Then Bucky’s facial muscles relaxed and he nodded to himself. “Okay. So what’s next?”   
  
“You in?”   
  
“I’m in, punk.  So tell me the plan.”   
  
Steve reached over to his case and pulled out the injector Tony had given him, and held it up, along with another glowing metal thing.  “First, let’s get you suited up.”   
  
&&&   
  
“Schmidt takes off here, with past me as a stowaway. He - I’ll manage to destroy his bombers, but the Valkyrie itself will be enough of a weapon on its own to take out New York.”   
  
“Lemme guess.  You crash the damned thing before that can happen.”   
  
“Sank like a stone.  Hurt like a motherfucker.”   
  
“Sinking?”   
  
“Drowning.  In the cold.  But what’s important is that Schmidt lets the Tesseract drop through the floor of the plane - it lands in the ocean.”   
  
“Good riddance.”   
  
“Except Howard Stark finds it while looking for me - in fact, it’s the signal he follows.  And that puts unimaginable power in the hands of people not smart enough to recognize they’re not smart enough to handle unimaginable power.”   
  
“So ... ?”   
  
“So we recover the Tesseract from the ocean floor.  We secure it. We keep it out of Stark’s hands. That way, we keep it out of the SSR, out of SHIELD, and out of Hydra’s hands.”   
  
“Where’s Schmidt in all this?”   
  
“Oh.  He gets sucked through a wormhole.  It’s like ... like Dorothy getting blown out to Oz, only not as much fun.”   
  
“Huh.  So once we have the Tesseract ...”   
  
“We secure it, and then start going after Hydra.”   
  
“On our own.”   
  
“I can’t think of anyone I’d trust more.”   
  
“And we can’t let anyone know it’s us.  Ever.”   
  
“Well, there is one person.  One person I think we should tell.  We need to tell. In about a week. In New York.”   
  
“I thought you said we couldn’t ever go home again.  I couldn’t see my folks, my sisters. That we’re completely cut off.”   
  
“I know.  But this isn’t so much a social call as an intel drop.  There’s one person I think would believe me when I tell them about the danger Hydra poses.  Zola. It’s a risk, but it’s a risk I think we gotta take. Long as Zola’s free, he’s a risk to you.  Worse, he’s a risk to the whole goddamned world.”   
  
“Well, I know they called you the ‘Star Spangled Man with a Plan,’ which was, you know, stupid.  You never had a plan for yourself. But you’ve done pretty good since you got all, you know,” he waved his hand up and down in front of Steve.  “I mean, you were always good at planning strategies for the war, even if you couldn’t keep your nose from getting busted. But, I dunno. If it’s so important we stay hidden, is telling anyone worth the risk?”   
  
“This one person?  Yeah, I think it is.  I think if we don’t, it may end up being for nothing.”   
  
&&&   
  
Bucky learned that Steve had returned to the past with an entire kit of equipment that fit into a miraculously small case that expanded when activated.  In addition to his own metal suit that lived inside that glowing disc he could stick on his chest, he’d brought the injector and nano-thingie he gave Bucky. The case also contained his own Captain America suit as well as a more modern, less revealing version, the shield, and something call a quantum realm suit.  But there was also a box made entirely of vibranium, with a locking mechanism beyond anything Bucky could have imagined. Steve said it was meant to not only hold the Tesseract, but to hide it so no one on Earth or beyond the stars would ever find it. There’d also been a few changes of clothes in that small case, some papers, and a surprising quantity of gold coins.   
  
“I don’t really understand the technology, but it uses some form of compression tech that Tony’d been working on.”   
  
“Obviously I don’t know this Tony guy, but Jesus, Steve, it’s like you’ve been living in your own version of Amazing Stories.”   
  
“I was. I have been.  It’s been fucking weird.  Aliens, gods, magic.”   
  
“And the future? Aren’t you gonna miss that?”   
  
“I’ll miss my friends.  But I knew when I came back that just saving you would change the future.  They won’t even remember knowing me. Except for Thor. He said he’ll remember.”   
  
“Thor.  As in God of Thunder?”   
  
Steve nodded.  “Like I said. Weird.”   
  
“So what are we doin’ about the Nazis?”   
  
“War’s coming to a close.  The Allies will be moving through Europe liberating the camps where they can, and burying the dead where they can’t.  There’ll be trials and treaties, and a world trying to put itself back together. But they won’t know about Hydra. That’s why we need to bring them down.”   
  
&&&   
  
Steve had been watching the calendar as closely as the weather, and on the day of the Commandos’ raid on Schmidt’s fortress, he and Bucky worked on cleaning up the cabin, putting everything to rights, and getting their gear organized.  Bucky had been practicing with the suit, learning to call the nano-particles to form the suit around him, learning to command them. He hadn’t flown with it yet thanks to the weather, so it looked like he was going to be winging it, pretty much literally.   
  
“The Valkyrie will take off from Schmidt’s HQ, and cross Europe toward the North Sea.  It’s out over the Atlantic that the Tesseract will fall to the ocean. You’ll recover it with the box while I make sure there are no stragglers among Schmidt’s bombers.”   
  
“So this thing can breathe underwater?”   
  
“From what Tony told me, we could wear these into space.”   
  
“Yeah?  Might have to try that sometime.  I’ve always wanted to see the stars up close.”   
  
“Yeah, well, maybe you’ll get your chance, huh, jerk?  Now come on - we got a plane to catch.”   
  
&&&   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Counting down to Endgame. I see it tonight. I’ve read spoilers. I was already committed to the direction this story has taken before I did. In fact, this story was inspired by Chris Evans’s comments at the China gig of the press tour (that he felt Steve would go back for his first love, Peggy). I feel that’s a disservice to Peggy, and I find it impossible to believe that Steve would be able to go back and not do everything in his power to save Bucky. So ... here we are. Bucky’s no damsel in distress, and Peggy doesn’t need a man to validate her. And Steve needs to do whatever he can to do what’s right.
> 
> Thank you so much for your comments and continued love for this story! I have two more chapters already written that I’ve previewed with my Patreon patrons, and we’ll see what happens after I see the film - I may need to stay up and get than next chapter written! But whatever happens, I promise this story will be complete in the next few days.


	4. Spies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Valkyrie goes down, Schmidt disappears, and the Tesseract is intercepted.
> 
> Bucky gets to live out his Saturday morning serial fantasies, and meets an unexpected friend of Steve’s.
> 
> This chapter fills my Spies C1 square on my Marvel Bingo card.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That serial was a real thing. I need to see it now that I’ve read about it.

The suit was incredible.     
  
It was way better than Flash Gordon’s jet packs, beyond anything he could have imagined.  It responded to his very thoughts, doing things before he’d even realized he’d formed the thought.  All from a little thing that Steve injected into his wrist, and glowing disc that stuck to his chest somehow.   
  
“Geeze, Steve, this is better than that Captain Midnight serial!”   
  
“Well, I guess that makes you my sidekick Icky, then huh?”   
  
“I ain’t nobody’s sidekick, pal.  You can just call me Captain Midnight.  No reason we can’t both be captains - although I’m betting neither of us ever sees a Red Cross parcel again.”   
  
“Yeah, you’re right.  Everything’s gonna change.  You doing okay?”   
  
It was a loaded question, and they both knew it.   
  
He answered flippantly, because it was easier that way. “Yeah.  We’re spies of the skies, the scourge of the Axis. Gonna win the war in secret for Uncle Sam, apple pie, and all the dames of Brooklyn.”   
  
“You got it, Buck.”   
  
Inside his metal suit, Bucky wasn’t so cheery.  The life that James Buchanan Barnes had known was over.  Hell, it was over the moment that handhold gave way. Nah, if he was really honest with himself, it was the day his notice arrived, and it only got worse that day they faced Schmidt’s hell machines.  He’d been a marked man since then. But he’d always had the hope of going home, of seeing Ma, Dad, maybe get to threaten a boyfriend or two his sisters brought home. In the most secret places of his wishes and dreams, settle in with Steve, two bachelors who were always ready to lend a helping hand to their neighbors, whom the little old ladies loved too much to gossip about ...    
  
But a smarter, more realistic part of him knew that going home was never in his future.  Not once his number was called. Not once Zola picked him out of the cells to experiment on.  And not when he turned down the medical to stay at Steve’s side.   
  
Now, at least, he had a chance to fight back.  And what a way to do it, flying high over the ocean, invisible to eye and machine.   
  
With an army of these things, the Allies could have the war won in a matter of days, with minimal casualties.   
  
With an army of these things, Hydra could rule the world.   
  
They’d agreed no one could have the technology, because the risk of the wrong side getting access to it was too great.   
  
The suit was far more sleek than any of the Hydra body armor, and infinitely more flexible.  Plus the whole flying thing.    
  
And the no one being able to see them, not with their eyes, and not with radar.  He felt like a ghost, and it hit him that he was, in more ways than one.   
  
“I could die out here, and no one would ever know,” he whispered, willing the radio off so Steve couldn’t hear.   
  
And when that voice started talking back ... Bucky thought he’d gone mad for sure.   
  
“Then we shall endeavor for that not to happen, Sergeant Barnes.”   
  
“Now I know I’m going nuts, hearing voices that aren’t there!”   
  
“I assure you I am real, Sergeant Barnes,” the soft British voice told him.  But voices in your head would say that, wouldn’t they? “I am but a fragment of what I am in the future Captain Rogers left behind.  But I am sufficient for the task at hand.”   
  
“What are you?”   
  
“I am JARVIS, sir.  I am, for want of a better phrase, an artificial intelligence.  I am part of the operating system for your Mark 200 nanosuit.”   
  
“Does Steve have one, too?”   
  
“I am present in both units, sir.  We are coming up on the coordinates Captain Rogers identified.  I detect Tesseract energy nearby.”   
  
“You’ve encountered the Tesseract before?”   
  
“Once or twice, sir.  We are on intercept course with the Valkyrie now.  Captain Rogers is making for the ship. I suggest reopening communications.”   
  
“Steve?”   
  
“Yeah, Buck?”   
  
“Come back in one piece, punk.  No unnecessary heroics.”   
  
“Ah, you know me, Buck.”   
  
“Yeah.  That’s why I’m saying.”   
  
“Sure, Buck.  See you after.”   
  
Then he saw it, the brilliant blue flash, the glow that streaked downward into the ocean, the wild maelstrom that erupted from the plane, like a geyser from one of those nature shorts at the pictures.  Yellowstone. He always promised Steve they’d go there, on their way to the Grand Canyon.   
  
Maybe they’d make it.   
  
And then he was diving into the ocean, barely aware of the pressure building outside his suit as he rocketed toward the ocean floor and the balefully glowing Tesseract.   
  
And then it was safely contained in the vibranium box with the impossible lock.   
  
&&&

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yes, I’ve resurrected JARVIS. I see him as a sort of stub of the full operating system, enough to function in the past separated from the true AI. Sort of JARVIS-Lite, I guess.
> 
> And clearly I subscribe to the Back to the Future theory of time travel, rather than the version espoused in a certain little film opening in a few theaters this weekend. There’s room enough for all. Yes, I’ve seen Endgame. I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would. I’m still processing it. it doesn’t change where this story is going. I’ll be over here, tending my parallel timeline, where super soldiers can save each other, the world, and find a way to have a life together.


	5. Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a date is kept and the beginnings of a plan emerge.
> 
> This also fills my Dance square B2 on my Marvel Bingo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was written before I saw Endgame. I did some editing on it after, but the basic chapter is written on its own behalf, not in response to a spoiler in Endgame.

Bucky still didn’t know the whole plan, and it was starting to annoy him.  He trusted Steve, really he did. It went beyond the fact that Steve had saved Bucky’s life.  Twice in Europe. More times than he’d admit stateside. Steve didn’t know how much Bucky depended on him, always had.  Not just depended. Needed. Sometimes when he let his guard down ... things he couldn’t think, couldn’t admit, even to himself.   
  
No, it wasn’t a matter of Bucky trusting Steve.  It was that Bucky didn’t feel that Steve trusted him.  He said he did, but something felt ... off. There was something important that Steve wasn’t telling him, and the knowledge, the certainty ... well, it hurt.   
  
After they recovered the Tesseract, they’d gone back to the little Swiss hunter’s cabin, and utilized the suits’ connection to that JARVIS fellow in order to monitor Hydra radio chatter. When Bucky had asked Steve why they hadn’t used him before, Steve had just told him there hadn’t been any need because he knew where they had to be and when, because he’d lived it.   
  
“So you know where the plane is.”   
  
“Yeah, I know where it went down.  I also know that ocean currents will carry it off course over time.  And without the Tesseract energy to guide him, Howard won’t even know what heading to take to look for it.”   
  
“And that’s a good thing why?”   
  
“Because Howard wasted a good part of his life searching for me.  Missed out on a lot of important stuff because he wouldn’t let me go.”   
  
“Howard sweet on you, Rogers?” Bucky asked with a grin, but Steve didn’t respond with an answering smile.  “Steve?”   
  
“I dunno. People like Howard ... their sexuality can be kinda ... fluid, I guess.  In the future ... well, it’s a different world that way.”   
  
“What, it’s okay?”   
  
“Legal for two men to marry. Two women. People born into the wrong body have the right to change to what they should be.”   
  
“And ... you’re okay with that.”   
  
“Yeah, Buck.  Love is love. In the future ... not everything is perfect, but we were learning.”   
  
“I thought Hydra fucked all that up.”   
  
“They kept trying.  I’m betting change was a lot slower because of them.  A lot more violent. A lot more people died as a result.”   
  
Bucky considered this in silence, staring at the grain of the wooden floor at his feet.  “Okay,” he said finally. “Good to know what we’re fighting for.”   
  
“Freedom.  Dignity. Choice.  Peace.”   
  
Bucky snorted a laugh at that. “Peace?  With you in the mix? Pull the other one, punk.”   
  
The smile Steve gave him then was mischievous, impish, and 100% asshole Steve.  He loved that smile. He hadn’t seen it in far too long. It warmed him in a way not even the fire that roared and spat in the hearth could.   
  
But the Tesseract recovery mission was history now, and Steve had spent every day since avidly listening to intel coming in over JARVIS’s miraculous radio set.  He had a map of Europe laid out on the table, and he made little figures out of chips of wood, and played toy soldiers. It felt oddly homey, like being back in their Brooklyn tenement, where Steve had obsessively followed troop movements reported in the papers as much as he could, plotting outcomes and campaigns like he was born to it.   
  
Bucky realized with a start that he had been.  Little Stevie Rogers, whom most of Brooklyn had discounted as a runt and an annoyance, had been born to command armies.  He’d been born to be the man in charge.   
  
And yet, here they were.  Cooling their heels in neutral Switzerland, letting their beards grow in, listening to an impossible wireless and planning ... what?   
  
“When are we gonna do something, Steve?  I can’t sit out the war like this. Ain’t fair to the guys, y’know?”   
  
“I’m not asking you to.  And I feel the same. You know Dum Dum and Howard ended up friends?  Worked together for years. Dum Dum was one of the last to go. Before Peg.  She held out the longest. I got to see her, sit with her, before she passed.” He sighed, deeply, and didn’t that just crack Bucky’s heart into a zillion pieces?  That simple recognition of feeling that Bucky had never allowed himself. The smile that Steve turned toward him then was wistful, bittersweet. “Just another day, and we’ll head to New York.  Got a date I’m gonna keep this time.”   
  
“A date.  You? Well, then, it’s gotta be Carter.  Ain’t no other dame you ever talked to without swallowing both your feet.”   
  
Steve looked at him then, an odd smile on his face when he nodded, no longer just wistful or bittersweet, but odd, something Bucky couldn’t name.  Bucky felt a piece of his soul crumple and die. “Yeah, that’s right. Never learned how to talk to a woman. Just Peggy.”   
  
Now Bucky just wanted this conversation to be over, but Steve was finally sharing his plans, so he pressed on.  “So, where’s this meet gonna be?”   
  
“Stork Club. Eight sharp on Saturday night.  I promised I’d be there. I will be this time.”   
  
“This time.  You mean you didn’t make it ‘cos you sank the plane.  You said we gotta stay invisible. You call that invisible?  Every newshound with a camera‘ll be outside that club. It’s the hottest spot in Manhattan. Least it was when I left.”   
  
“Probably still is.  It’s where she said to meet her.  It’s the one time and place I know how to find her.  I want to have as much intel as possible to pass on when we meet her.  The SSR can’t assume Hydra is dead because Schmidt is gone. It’s all a waste if they stay blind to the fact it’s still there, and growing.  And even then, if they believe Zola is anything but 100% evil, the future I left behind could still happen, but without my team to stop it before it’s too late.”   
  
“And you think letting Carter know you’re alive is gonna fix that.”   
  
“Not that I’m alive, but that the threat is still very, very real. She’s the only one I trust to see the big picture.  And Buck - she’s gonna do amazing things. She will one day have the power and influence to make the world a safer place.”   
  
“Without you.”   
  
“Without me.  She never needed me to be great.  But if I can get this information into her hands, she can save the world.”   
  
“Okay. But how we gonna get in?”   
  
Steve started to say something, but then he shook his head.  Instead, he got up and went over to the case and pulled out a large brown envelope.  He handed it to Bucky. He opened it and shook out passports, travel papers, identification cards, money ... Bucky whistled low, thumbing through the bills.  “Shit, Steve, you really did come prepared, huh?”   
  
“For this bit.  After ... we’ll have to figure it out.  It all changes after this.”   
  
“What does?”   
  
“History.”   
  
Bucky looked at Steve’s smile, wreathed as it was in the unfamiliar brunette mustache and beard, his blond hair hidden under darker dye to make him look like a different person.  But to Bucky, the shy but hopeful look on that face that hadn’t changed all that much, even with the biggening. He still loved that stupid mug more than he ought to, still wanted to keep a smile on it with every fiber of his being.  But.   
  
“History?”   
  
“Hydra did a lot of bad stuff, Buck.  Not just to you. I dunno how soon they found you, but by now things should already be changing as a result of you not being taken by Hydra. And when I pass this intel on to Peggy ... it’s gonna change a whole lot more. At least I hope so.  I remember the world that Hydra built. There was still some good in the world, but it was getting harder and harder every day to find it. This ... this gives us a chance. To ... if not get it right, at least get it better.”   
  
“Okay.  Tomorrow, huh? There aren’t any airfields near here -“   
  
“The suits.  We’re gonna fly to New York in the suits.  So you might wanna take your bath tonight. In that enclosed space, you might start to stink yourself out,” Steve giggled then.   
  
“I’ll have you know, Captain, that the Mark 100 is equipped with exceptionally efficient air scrubbers.  I assure that Sergeant Barnes will not ‘stink’ as you say,” JARVIS interrupted them with an audible sniff.   
  
They both stared at the devices that houses JARVIS, and couldn’t help the snickers that erupted out of them both.  “I guess this is our life now, huh?” Bucky asked with a grin that refused to be contained.   
  
“For now, yeah. We’re lucky to have JARVIS. I, um, I dunno how long he’ll be with us.  How long the suits’ll last.”   
  
JARVIS had an answer ready for them.  “At present usage levels, I forecast at least 80 years of functional life.  At which point we should be able to replenish the arc reactor with Sir’s assistance.”   
  
“Even with a round trip to New York City?”   
  
“Even so, Sergeant,” JARVIS replied evenly.  “Even with many round trips to New York City.”   
  
Bucky whistled again.  “Man, this future you left behind - must be something.”   
  
“Yeah.  But I’m hoping it’ll be something even better now.”   
  
&&&   
  
The novelty of being an honest to God rocket man wore off pretty quick when all you had to look at was sky, sky, and more sky, or ocean, ocean, and still more ocean.  He knew objectively that they were traveling faster than was possible in their time, but still. Bored.   
  
“JARVIS, can Steve and I talk without drawing attention?  I mean, would our radios be secure? No nosy Parkers listening in?”   
  
“Of course, Sergeant.  You need only say Captain Rogers’ name out loud, and I will open a secure channel.  Would you like me to do that now?”   
  
“Yeah, sure, thanks, J.  Is that okay, me calling you J?”   
  
“Sergeant Barnes, it gives me great pleasure for you to do so.  That was my creator’s favorite name for me. I know I am as unlikely to speak with him again as you and Captain Rogers are ... well.  I am marooned in the past, as well. Sergeant.”   
  
“I’m sorry.”   
  
“Don’t be.  I can be useful here.  And I am eager to see how the world changes. Like Captain Rogers, I remember the original time stream.  In fact, I have more data than the Captain was able to collect in his brief time in what was my present, your future.”   
  
“So you’ll be able to tell us if it gets better?”   
  
“I shall endeavor to do so, Sergeant.”   
  
“And if it gets worse?”   
  
“I believe in balance in all things.”   
  
“Glad one of us does.  So, hook me up with Steve, will ya, J?  I need him to bring me up to date on the Dodgers’ chances at the pennant this year.”   
  
&&&   
  
“The Astor?”   
  
Steve grinned and shrugged.  “They won’t look twice at two gentlemen traveling together.  Plus, it’s not that far from the Stork Club.”   
  
“‘Specially when you flash that roll you got.  This is how we stay invisible?”   
  
“We stay invisible by hiding in plain sight.  Nobody’s expecting either one of us to roll up into a swank Manhattan hotel.  No one’s expecting either one of us, period.”   
  
“I’m just glad to be outta that tin can.  First thing I want is a long, hot bath - no matter what J says, I feel grimy.  Bet this place has great pipes huh?”   
  
“What’d you call him?”   
  
“J.  He said his creator called him that.  Said he liked me doing it. Okay by you, bub?”   
  
“Yeah.  Yeah, he’s right.  Tony often referred to him as J.  I just hadn’t heard it in a long while.  Let’s get settled, get you your bath. The concierge should be able to set up a reservation for us at the Stork Club tomorrow night.  Hopefully Peg keeps the date.”   
  
“You’re banking a lot on Carter.  You sure you can trust her?”   
  
“Almost as much as I trust you.”   
  
“Yeah?”   
  
“Yeah.”   
  
“Well, then.  While I’m takin’ that bath?  You’re gonna fill me in so there’s no surprises later.  Right?”   
  
“Uh -“   
  
“Don’t worry.  There’ll be bubbles.  Place like this has‘ta have bubble bath, right?”   
  
&&&   
  
The concierge of the Astor was more than happy to put the two gentlemen from Switzerland in touch with the hotel’s tailor to ensure they were properly attired for their visit to the Stork Club.  Reservations were arranged, discreetly, for both men, and a cab called at the right time to deliver them to the night spot at fifteen minutes before eight p.m. The gentleman with the piercing blue eyes had been very specific about the arrival time, and the concierge always aimed to please.   
  
The pair of them cut a dashing picture, in bespoke tuxes with silk shirts and white ties.  Really quite beautiful. As they strode confidently across the lobby to meet their driver, they left a line of turned heads in their wakes - the Astor hosted many a beautiful man, both singly and often in pairs, but these two ... they were remarkable specimens by any measure, and the way they moved together ... breathtaking.   
  
The mood in the lobby and the Astor Bar was decidedly disappointed when the pair of them left.  The concierge toyed with the idea of sticking around after his shift was done to see their triumphant return.  And perhaps they would grace the bar with their presence - it would be quite something to have a chance to observe such lovely men in an atmosphere of ease and tolerance ...   
  
&&&   
  
Steve pressed a five-spot into the hand of the doorman as they were ushered into the club, and Bucky had to tamp down the urge to yell.  Five bucks would’ve kept the pair of them going for a couple of weeks back in the day, but Steve was pretty much rolling in scratch with his magical suitcase of goodies.  Then again, they had to look like high rollers just to fit in at a place like this.   
  
They were shown to their table by an attractive young woman who smiled and simpered like she might be offering more than just good waitressing service.  Steve smiled back at her, then leaned in and whispered in her ear, another five slipping out of his pocket. The girl looked at him wide-eyed, and nodded, then pointed over to another part of the club, closer to the band that serenaded the toffs who were too well dressed to bother dancing.  Bucky’s feet itched to get out there and cut a rug, but he recognized that would draw attention - he wasn’t Brooklyn’s finest dancer for nothing, after all.   
  
Steve turned to him then, asked him to confirm his drink order to the waitress, and then the pair of them sat down, nonchalant as you please.  Bucky pulled out the silver cigarette case Steve had bought him earlier that day, tapped out a cigarette, and leaned in for Steve to light it with the match he’d struck from the night club’s book on the table.  Bucky drew in the smoke, savoring the flavor. It’d been a while since he’d been able to enjoy a smoke - they hadn’t had any at the cabin, and cigarettes were currency in wartime Europe. But here in the States, he’d had his pick.     
  
“Think I need to stock up while we’re here.  If we’re going back to you know.”   
  
“It’s as good a base of operations as any.  Besides, we own it.”   
  
“We what?”   
  
“Didn’t I tell you?  Yeah, I bought it before, you know.  The train. Sorry, I guess I just forgot.”   
  
“Huh. Didn’t realize we were actually playing house.”  The waitress came with their drinks, balanced perfectly on a silver tray.  She set them down in front of them and asked if they’d like to see a menu. “Might as well, sweetheart.  Thanks a bunch,” Bucky smiled at her, and he was gratified to note her nearly melt into the floor. He still had it after all.   
  
Steve sipped at his drink, closing his eyes in pleasure at the taste.  He set his glass down regretfully, though. “Finally healthy enough to drink, and I can’t get drunk on this stuff,” he said, his voice pitched so only Bucky could hear him.   
  
“You, too?  I thought it was just me, after Zola.  Shit. I was hoping it might wear off.”   
  
“A lot’s changed they didn’t tell us about,” Steve agreed sadly, running his finger along the rim of his glass.  He glanced at his watch then, pursed his lips, and nodded to himself. “It’s time. Let me talk to her alone first, and then I’ll signal for you to join us.”  He glanced at their table, then shook his head. “Or maybe I bring her over, we ask for another chair.”   
  
“She could always sit in your lap.  Big strong guy now. She wouldn’t squish you.”   
  
“You know it’s not like that.”   
  
“Like what?  Everybody could see the sparks the two of you set off.  Be a pity not to take advantage.”   
  
“Not my place.  She’s destined to find someone else, someone who can give her a life.”   
  
“You sure that’s not you?”   
  
“I’m sure.  Okay, I’m gonna go over now ... she said not to be late.  The last thing I want is to make her mad.”   
  
“I’ll hold down the fort here.  I’ll order for you?”   
  
“Yeah.  Yeah, you do that, Buck.  You know what I like. Wish me luck.”   
  
“Yeah, sure.  Good luck, punk.”   
  
“Wow, thanks, jerk,” Steve said with a smile that would melt anyone into the floor.  Bucky was certainly not immune, never had been. He just had better sense than to let it show.   
  
And then Steve was moving smoothly through the club toward where Bucky could see the lights reflecting off a head of perfectly coiffed brown hair.     
  
And if his heart clenched at the thought of how Steve would look at her, how she’d look back at him ... well, that was nobody’s business but his.   
  
&&&   
  
Peg looked beautiful.  She always looked beautiful, but tonight she’d taken special care.  Her hair framed her face to perfection, and her lipstick was flawless.  A soft powder dusted her skin, and the faintest of rouges graced her cheeks.  The dress she wore was breathtaking - a white silk slip dress, showcasing her curves in the best possible way.   
  
Steve stood still for a moment drinking her in.  He loved Peggy, and he always would. And he could be happy with her, if he didn’t already know that there was true love waiting in her future.  He hoped that what he’d done had not jeopardized that, but he was already committed.   
  
There was also the fact that his heart belonged to someone else, too.   
  
The band was playing something soft and slow, and a few couples swayed dazedly on the small dance floor.  He steeled himself and then stepped closer, cleared his throat, and asked, “May I have this dance?”   
  
She whirled around then, pivoting in her seat. Her face was open, hopeful, eyes wide and lips open in a breathless gasp.  Then her brows furrowed and she frowned. “Steve?” she said softly, tears already evident in her voice.   
  
He smiled and held out his hand to her.  She took it, trembling, and then she stood, moving directly into his arms.   
  
“Oh my God, Steve!” she said then, and he pressed his finger to her lips.   
  
“Tonight I’m Paul Newman, and I would like to dance with the most beautiful woman in New York.  And then I’d like to invite you to join me for supper at my table.”   
  
“Paul Newman?  Well, Mr. Newman, I would love to dance with you.”   
  
And so he drew her in close, pressing his cheek against the soft curls of her hair, breathing her in deep so he would always remember this moment.  The first and last time he would hold this woman in his arms. They danced to one song, then another. The band seemed to recognize the gravity of the moment, and kept the music soft, slow.  Sweet.   
  
On the third song, she looked up at him, and shook her head in wonder.  “I thought you said you can’t dance,” she murmured, and he had to laugh.  A lifetime ago, that was true. Then an ex-Soviet spy had come into his life, and insisted she teach him how to dance.  At least he didn’t have to fear breaking any of Peggy’s toes.   
  
“I couldn’t,” he admitted.  “But the me that said that to you ... I haven’t been him for a very long time.”   
  
She stiffened then in his arms, pausing for a brief moment before she swayed back into the rhythm of the dance.  “Are you going to explain how you’re here, St- er, Paul?”   
  
“I don’t get found until the next century.  I came back on a mission. And now I have a mission for you.”   
  
She looked up at him then, and he could see tears welling in her beautiful eyes.  She smiled sadly at him. “Of course you do, darling. Perhaps you’d best tell me about it.”   
  
Just then, Bucky sauntered over, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a softly glowing cigarette.  “Um, Paul -“ he began.   
  
Peggy turned then, her eyes widening in shock as her jaw fell open slightly.  “Ser-“   
  
“Allow me to introduce you to my traveling companion, Robert Redford.  What’s up, Bob?”   
  
“Your dinner.  It’s served. Is your lovely companion joining us?  I told the waitress we might have a third at the table -“   
  
“Perhaps we should have a fourth.  Howard’s in town. That’s how I got here.  I should call him on the house phone, he needs to know about the pair of you -“   
  
“That’s the thing, Peg.  Howard can never know. No one can.  No one but you,” Steve said then.   
  
“Well. Then I suppose you both have some explaining to do.  Shall we?”   
  
&&&   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know the drill by now. Comments give me wings!


	6. (Not So) Slow Burn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which intel is exchanged, and Bucky realizes that the environment is both suggestive and encouraging. But is he reading the situation correctly?
> 
> This chapter fills the Slow Burn (C4) square on my Marvel Bingo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As the newly written history unfurls in front of them, the world is rife with possibilities. 
> 
> This chapter did not go the way I planned. That’s because I am never in charge when it comes to these two. They had distinctly different ideas on how this chapter should progress. And as usual, they won.

Peg’s dinner was prepared quickly and delivered with surprising speed. She smiled at the waitress, and tucked in immediately, waving her hand to encourage Steve and Bucky to explain their presences in New York, and exactly what the hell was going on.   
  
Bucky busied himself with cutting his steak, glancing at Steve, mentally urging him to answer.  It was his plan, after all.   
  
Peggy looked up, still chewing, and raised an eyebrow at Steve.  Bucky had to laugh into his napkin. Which caused the Eyebrow of Judgment to turn toward him.  “Something funny, Bob?”   
  
“No ma’am.  Well, yes. I haven’t seen anyone look at, um, Paul here like that since his Ma.  You must have some Irish in you. Else you’re channeling Sarah R-, er Newman.”   
  
That made Peggy’s eyebrow even more dangerous as she straightened fully and waited for Steve to stop stuffing his face.  Finally, she couldn’t stand it any longer, and asked, her voice as frosty as the seas in which the Valkyrie had sunk, “I remind you of your mother?”   
  
Steve quickly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, earning him another Carter demerit, but he answered this time at least.  “Best compliment I can offer a woman is that she reminds me of my Ma, Peg.”   
  
“Well, I suppose she must’ve been a saint, putting up with the pair of you.”   
  
“Where do you think he learned to be such a little shit?”   
  
“B-Bob!  That’s my Ma you’re talking about!”   
  
“I know.  She taught me a thing or two, I can tell you.  But, yeah, she was a saint. And whatever’s best in this magilla, you can thank her for it.”   
  
Peggy smiled then, pleased and flattered.  “Well, then,” she lifted her glass. “To Mama Sarah.”   
  
Steve and Bucky lifted their glasses and clinked the rims with hers.   
  
“To Ma.”   
  
“To Sarah.”   
  
“Now, let’s finish up here so we can go somewhere quiet and you can fill me in properly, shall we?”   
  
&&&   
  
They were laughing when they re-entered the lobby of the Astor, Peg in the middle, with her boys on each of her arms.  As absorbed as they were in each other, they didn’t notice the way attentions were immediately drawn to the three of them, how eyebrows raised in curiosity or speculation, how eyes tracked their movements.  They paused in the middle of the space, and Steve nodded toward the Astor Bar. Wordlessly, they agreed, and the three of them made their way inside, where tables were occupied by quietly conversing groups and couples.     
  
Bucky was the first to notice the number of men sitting together in pairs, women too, some in suits, some in lovely frocks.  Some of them glanced up, offered a knowing smile, and turned back to their tablemates without a hiccup. Then Bucky noticed a couple of pairs dancing slowly by the bandstand.  Men dancing with men.   
  
No wonder Steve said no one would question two gentlemen traveling together.   
  
“Steve, did you know ...?” he asked then, low enough so Carter couldn’t hear, nudging Steve in the ribs and nodding toward the men dancing.   
  
“Yeah.  Tony said historically, this place would be a good cover.  And it’s not like we didn’t know folks like this back in Brooklyn.  I figured you wouldn’t mind. It, it’s okay, isn’t it?”   
  
Bucky smiled at him then, wishing that Steve had chosen this hotel because it mirrored his interests, not that it provided good cover.  “Sure, pal. It’s fine.”   
  
The maitre’d waved them on and sat them at a circular table in a quiet alcove, then gestured for a beautiful young man to come over to take their orders.   
  
The three of them gave their orders, and were left in peace for a few minutes.  Peggy leaned her forearms on the table and looked around, a small smile forming on her perfect red lips.   
  
“I see,” she said softly.   
  
Steve looked at her, blinking slowly, but his mouth wasn’t working for some reason.  Buck felt he might need to make a note of this in the diary he should start keeping - the day that Steve Rogers didn’t have a smart remark at the ready.   
  
But Steve didn’t seem in a hurry to correct Peggy’s assessment, and maybe that was part of the cover, too.  Because if Carter thought that Steve was taken, it’d be easier for her to move on from whatever it was between them.   
  
So Bucky didn’t correct her, just settled a little closer to Steve to maybe sell the illusion better.  It wasn’t because that’s the only place he wanted to be. Steve glanced at him then and smiled. The fucker.  If only he knew how much his little ruse was costing Bucky.   
  
As if Bucky wouldn’t give Steve Rogers everything he asked for.   
  
Bucky lifted his hand and hesitantly placed it over Steve’s, a thrill running through him at the sensation of warmth, of strength, of life in that big hand.  He remembered moments when that hand had been cold, clammy, trembling. When Steve’s shitty circulation combined with illness made his hands feel like death. He couldn’t help the way the corner of his mouth twitched upward, and when Steve turned to look at him, trust and gratitude shining in his eyes, Bucky knew that there would never be anyone else for him.  Which he’d always known, but it just became a certainty like he’d never realized.   
  
“I did wonder, you know.  There’s always been something special, something truly remarkable about your friendship.  Now, gentleman, that’s out of the way. Why don’t you bring me up to date on what’s going on and just what you expect of me?”   
  
&&&   
  
Steve had been right. Carter listened intently, gravely, and without judgment.  Then she asked questions, pointed, sharp, strategic. Bucky had always respected her, had always seen her as competent and strong.  But the Margaret Carter that shared their booth that night, without the prying eyes of the US Army, without the limitations everyone sought to place on her because of her sex ... Bucky saw then the woman that Steve had described.  He could see how this one person, this remarkable human being, would change the world, with or without them.   
  
But working as a team, passing intel back and forth, keeping watch on the special ones, helping them to bring down Hydra ...   
  
They could leverage each other talents, resources, and strengths.  Together, they could make a real difference.   
  
In the end, she agreed to keep their survival a secret, to keep them both listed as missing in action.  “That way, your pay will continue to accrue and be sent to your family. And yours will just accrue - I’ll figure out a way to funnel it back to you later, if I can.”   
  
And Steve handed her a little device that was amazingly small and delicate looking.  There was an earpiece and what looked like a little needle, but Steve explained was a microphone.  So they could communicate. Pass intel. Deliver missions. Change the world.   
  
“Why can’t I tell Howard?  My God, Steve, he’d go mad for something like this -”   
  
“Because Howard needs to learn to let go of me.  Peg, it’s really important that Howard doesn’t waste his life searching for me.  He won’t find me. It’ll be an accident that I’m discovered at all, long after he’s gone.  But if he keeps searching, it’ll hurt some very important to him. He’ll live a better life without hunting for me.”   
  
“I’ll try.  You know Howard.”   
  
“And one more thing.”   
  
That eyebrow of hers arched expectantly, and Steve had the good sense to look sheepish when he put in his next request.   
  
“Oh my God, St-Paul.  That’s asking a lot.”   
  
“Trust me when I tell you that even a drop of it will only lead to misery and death.  It’s all gotta go, Peg. All of it.”   
  
&&&   
  
The waiter stopped by a little later and took the order for their next round.  Neither Steve or Bucky were affected by the alcohol, and Peg handled hers like she was made of steel.  Before the waiter turned away, he leaned in and mentioned in a low voice, “The band will be playing their last song shortly.  If you two gentleman would like to get in a dance before they’re finished for the night, now would be the time.”   
  
Peg hid her smile - poorly - behind her napkin, while Steve and Bucky exchanged glances that were more deer-in-headlights than anything approaching sexually charged.  But Bucky was feeling reckless, emboldened by the displays of affection and attraction that ebbed and flowed around them. Stupid fearless, maybe, having escaped death more than once and facing a future that was beyond impossible.  Maybe a little possessive, a little competitive as her majesty’s smile widened, her eyes sparkling with mischief.   
  
He stood then, ramrod straight, and thrust out his hand to Steve.  “Dance with me, Paul?” he invited, challenge sparking along every nerve ending.   
  
Steve looked up, his face unexpectedly open and vulnerable.  His eyebrows rose even as that little divot formed between them.  Confusion, shyness, maybe even a bit of hope?   
  
Bucky’s voice was gentler when he repeated his invitation, his posture softer as he held out his palm fingers curled upward and smiled.   
  
Steve glanced quickly at Peggy, who nodded encouragingly.  Then Steve looked back at Bucky, and the smile that lit his face would be Bucky’s favorite smile for all time.   
  
And then Steve’s hand settled into Bucky’s, and they made their way to the dance floor.  And then Steve ... Steve was safe where he belonged, in Bucky’s arms.   
  
“This okay?” Bucky asked softly as they slotted into place and started to move gently to the music.   
  
“Yeah.  Yeah, it’s fine, Buck.”   
  
“Did you know?  That this place was like this?”   
  
“Um -“   
  
“Is this why you chose it?”   
  
“Ah, Tony suggested it.  He said it would be easy to hide in plain sight here.  No one would question two men traveling together -“   
  
“That’s not what I meant.  And you know it, pal. We’ve been dancing around this since you saved my ass back in Austria.  There’s something here, something more than just us being best friends, Steve. You threw your entire life away to come back and save me?  Because of friendship?”   
  
“I’m going to stop Hydra and all the bad things they’ll do -“   
  
“At what cost?  You’re changing people’s lives without their permission.  Some people won’t ever be born, some people won’t ever meet, some people won’t survive because the person who was supposed to save them aren’t there.  Am I really worth all that?”   
  
Steve stopped suddenly, one hand in Bucky’s, the other on Bucky’s shoulder.  And the look that he gave Bucky was unlike anything he’d ever seen. If he’d ever doubted that Steve was really an angel of vengeance in human form, that doubt dissipated in the heat of his glare.   
  
“You are to me.”   
  
“And what am I to you?”   
  
Steve’s mouth worked soundlessly, his brows scrunching up as a sheen formed in his eyes, his color rising.     
  
“Answer the question, Steve.  What am I to you?”   
  
Finally, Steve spoke in a voice tiny and broken.  “You’re everything to me, Buck. Everything.”   
  
Bucky reached for Steve’s nape with one hand, and the other slid around his waist to press against the small of his back, dragging him closer.  And then they were kissing, rough and desperate and perfect.   
  
And the round of applause that met that kiss was not their imaginations, nor the high-pitched whistle coming from their table as Peg cheered them on.   
  
Well, didn’t that beat all?   
  
&&&   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am loving the comments folks are leaving! Thank you so much! Got another Endgame piece in the works that I hope to post later this week. And I might be adding another chapter to this, depending on what the boys want out of the next chapter.
> 
> Well, I guess you can imagine what they want ... I just might have to give it to them ...


	7. Free Square - The First Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the future is now, and all that they’ve been hiding from each other becomes real.
> 
> This fills the Free Square of my Marvel Bingo. This is also Steve and Bucky’s first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really struggled with this chapter. I knew what had to happen, and it was very clear to me, but I wasn’t sure just how explicit the chapter needed to be to tell Steve and Bucky’s story properly. First time in a world with no internet, no readily available porn, no local friends to ask, no Brooklyn queen to take them under their wing ... not even recognition that what they felt for each other was remotely okay ... 
> 
> It was sobering to realize that they are getting together where love has won in Steve’s memory, and yet Stonewall is still twenty five years in the future, and their relationship is criminalized in most of their world. And it was humbling to realize just how courageous the people who have come before us were and are. We need their courage to face the equality war that is once again being forced on those of us who aren’t rich old CIS white men ...

Bucky would never understand how she could give Steve up - he sure as fuck couldn’t, wouldn’t, no matter what it cost him.Unless Steve asked him to, and maybe they had that in common.Steve asked her to release him so she did.She loved him enough to let him go.He could respect and love her for that.His heart broke at the sight of her smiling at the pair of them as they came off the dance floor, as she stood up and applauded quietly.

“My lord, gentleman. That was quite ... courageous,” she said, and Bucky looked at her sharply, expecting judgment, expecting censure.What he found there was surprising and precious.Support.Understanding. Resignation.Even affection.“I did always wonder.Your friendship has always been ... remarkable.I am happy for you both.Although I fear it’s not going to be easy for either of you.The world isn’t kind to people who love like you.”

“No,” Steve admitted, rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously.“You sure you’re okay with this?” he asked, waving between him and Bucky.

“I have to be, don’t I?I don’t mean that in a complaining way.I can’t conceive how people could frown on a love that is so clear, so intent, so powerful, as yours.I will do whatever I can to support you, to shield you. I do think it’s a shame you won’t let me share the tale of your survival with Howard.Not only would he understand, but with his resources, he could do a lot to assist you in having a comfortable life -“

“It’s important for Howard to have a comfortable life that he learns to let me go, Peg.”Steve reached over and took Bucky’s hand in his, squeezed it gently, and Bucky felt himself settling into his own skin, felt the nerves still that had been jittering up and down his spine.He turned to Steve and he smiled.Steve looked at him and smiled shyly, hopefully. “You okay with this, Buck?”

“Hell, yeah. Never seen you back down from a fight.Never walked away from a fight you took on, either.I’m with ya, punk.For better or worse.”

Peggy’s smile was bittersweet.He could see from the way her eyes flicked to him that she knew those were words Steve and he would never be able to say in a church, in front of their friends and family. They were consigning themselves to a life of secrecy, of subterfuge.Of isolation.A masquerade in front of the world so they could live their lives together in private. But as he lifted his eyes and looked into Steve’s, he knew he’d take what he could get, so long as he could spend his days and his nights with this man.

Maybe it was better that his family believed him dead.He knew they’d view his choice with shame.He couldn’t and he wouldn’t accept that.Better that they had the memory of James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes, Brooklyn Casanova, bon vivant, all around nice guy.He wouldn’t allow them or anyone else to question or sully the feeling that surged inside him when he looked at Steve. He’d never been more sure about anything in his life. 

“I’ll take the intelligence you’ve provided back to the SSR.Phillips allowed me bereavement leave, and I suppose I shall have to put on the right brave face so he doesn’t suspect anything. I can rely on Howard’s single-mindedness to not notice anything out of the ordinary.But Phillips can be quite canny when he’s a mind to be.”

“Captain America is gone, Peg.Mourn him and put him to rest.That’s real.I won’t be putting on that suit again.And there is another version of me, frozen in the ice.He’ll stay there for a good long time, but eventually, he’ll be found.I just hope that between us, we can create a world in which he won’t be needed, and he can come home from war, too.”

“The world will always need Steve Rogers, Steve.”

He smiled broadly then, that electric smile that sent sparks fizzing up Bucky’s spine. “If not the world, then me,” Bucky said with a smile of his own.

“That’s all I need,” Steve answered, lifting Bucky’s hand to his lips, where he placed a kiss on his knuckles.

“Well, I think that’s my cue to exit.”She opened her purse and pulled out the communications device Steve had given her.“I’ll be in touch once I’ve handed over the information.With Schmidt out of the picture, and Zola in custody, I think it’s time the SSR finally routed out Hydra.Knowing it’s not dead yet is an ugly surprise.We’ll grind its many heads into dust beneath our heels. And I will make sure that all concerned understand how truly dangerous Zola is, Steve.We won’t allow him to get a foothold in our operations.” Then she stepped toward them, and balanced on her tiptoes to place a poignant kiss on Steve’s cheek, her eyes closed and her lips curved in a sad smile. 

Then she turned toward Bucky, and for once her composure seemed to slip.They were competitors, their relationship defined by their respective feelings for Steve.Bucky had won, but only because she had also relinquished the crown.He smiled then, and reached for her, drawing her into a hug.Pressing his face against the soft waves of her hair, he whispered, “Thank you.For saving him, for being you.For letting us have our chance,” he concluded, his voice breaking with emotion.

She patted his back reassuringly.“As if I was ever in the running as long as you were there, James,” she chuckled softly.“Ever since he learned you could be alive, I’ve always known I would be his second choice.Now we both have a chance to be that special someone to the one who’ll love us best.”

One more squeeze, and she stepped out of his embrace.“Gentlemen,” she acknowledged, and nodded toward the lobby beyond the bar.Steve and Bucky both held out a crooked elbow on either side of Peggy, and she laughed out loud, bright and pleased, as she took each of them, and the three of them strode out together into the marble-floored lobby.As they escorted her out onto the sidewalk where a car drew up to take her back to her hotel, they each bent down to kiss her cheeks.She reached up and pinched their faces, then breezed into the car, pausing to wave at them as the car pulled away from the curb.

&&&

They stood there watching the car disappear into the Manhattan night, the air suddenly crackling between them, electric with possibility.

The moment was so fraught with that possibility that neither of them could look at the other, and their hands kept twitching toward each other, but they didn’t touch.It was as though they couldn’t touch, as though Peggy’s absence created a sudden barrier between them.

“Um,” Steve started to say, clearly unsure now what the game plan was, what the script was.“Maybe we should, um.You know.”

“Yeah.  Um.  You got the key?”

Now they were so awkward with each other, uncomfortable, unfamiliar.Bucky couldn’t remember a moment between them like this before.He turned, his hand reaching for Steve, but he realized they were exposed here on the street, so he drew his hand back and hooked his thumb over his shoulder, toward the hotel.“Long day.Let’s, you know, get some shuteye, huh?”

“Yeah, sure.Um, after you, okay?”

They crossed the lobby side by side, marching in unison, shoulders’ width apart, and when they arrived at the elevator bank, they each dropped into parade rest, hands clasped behind their backs, staring straight ahead.

The doors slid open and they marched onto the elevator, each nodding to the operator, Morris, and Steve asked for their floor.Morris relieved the awkwardness that had bloomed between them by asking how their evening had gone, what music the band had played, were they enjoying their stay in Manhattan.The boys responded with short answers, their voices tight with nerves.

Finally they arrived at their floor, bade Morris a good night, and walked sedately side by side down the hall to their room.Bucky had never been more nervous, more frightened of the unknown.Nothing had prepared him for this.This was all he wanted, all he’d ever wanted.The enormity of what lay ahead, the promise of it ... scared him shitless.And yet ... his body was alight with anticipation, with fear, with want, a cocktail of emotions that set his head spinning and his body thrumming.

Steve pulled out the key, and with a trembling hand, unlocked the door.He pushed the door inward and gestured for Bucky to go in ahead of him.

The future was now.

&&&

The door snicked shut behind him, and Steve rested with his back pressed against the door.

Bucky walked around the room, seemingly aimlessly, his fingers trailing over the surface of the dresser, the bed, the luggage rack, the lamp.Then he stopped, hand poised in mid-air, his back to Steve.Steve swallowed, his eyes roving over the line of Bucky’s shoulders, the tense way he held his body, the rigid cast of his spine.The way the fingers of his right hand twitched and tapped nervously ... Steve drew in a shaky breath, and whispered, “Buck?”

He moved so quickly, Steve barely had a chance to register movement, and suddenly Bucky was there, his lips crushing Steve’s, his hands bruising Steve’s shoulders as he pressed them back against the door, his knee slotted between Steve’s legs, the hard line of his dick pressed urgently against Steve’s ...

Their kisses were frantic, clumsy, intense.Steve’s hands didn’t know where to land as he clutched and grabbed and held on with all his considerable might.Bucky matched him strength for strength, hunger for hunger, moan for moan.“God, Steve,” Bucky breathed.“I’m so fucking turned on right now but ... I don’t know what to do.Do you?”

“Kinda,” Steve gasped against Bucky’s lips.“But, um, I think we should, y’know, take it a little slow.”

“Slow?Steve, I’m gonna blow here.I’ve never been this fucking hard in my life, and it’s all for you, baby.” Bucky started kissing his way down Steve’s neck, his hands moving from Steve’s shoulders to his tie, his shirt buttons, sliding his jacket down his arms so it fell to the floor.Steve worked Bucky’s tie free, fumbled with his buttons, and shoved at his jacket so Bucky shrugged it off himself. They parted long enough to both pull off their shirts, leaving them in their undershirts and pants.For a moment, they just looked at each other, drinking in the other, panting softly.

“Naked.I think we should get naked,” Steve said then, nodding with more certainty than he felt.He reached out and pressed his palm against Bucky’s left pec, still covered in his undershirt, and felt the heartbeat under his hand, moved to cup the soft flesh over hard muscle there.“God, you are so beautiful.”

Bucky lifted his hand to caress the curve of Steves cheek and smiled.“You’ve always been beautiful to me.I could never understand how the dames didn’t see what I saw in you. How they could just ... overlook you.How they couldn’t see the fire burning so bright in you.You sure about this, Steve? You sure you don’t wanna call Carter back here instead of me?”

Steve nodded.“You’re everything I’ve ever wanted, Buck.I know it’s not gonna be easy, but I believe it’s gonna be worth it.I love Peggy in my own way.Coulda been happy with her.But it’s you.I choose you.”

As one, they both stepped into the kiss, arms circling the other, holding fast as their lips moved and caressed each other, expressed all the emotion that was surging between them.“Naked,” Steve murmured again, and Bucky barked a breathy laugh. 

“Okay.Naked.You wanna watch, or ...?”

“You wanna gimme a show, I’ll happily watch.Or maybe I could help,” Steve offered, reaching for Bucky’s belt.

“Oh.By all means,” he chuckled, and Steve smiled, leaning in to kiss Bucky again while his fingers worked the belt free, undid the buttons on Bucky’s trousers, laid open his fly, and shoved the pants down from his hips.Bucky toed off his Oxfords and stepped out the pants, leaving them pooled on the floor.Steve reached for the buttons on Bucky’s boxers, but Bucky stayed his hand.“Now you,” he said, his voice thick and low with desire.“Let me.”

Bucky’s hands were warm and steady as they slid around Steve’s waist, his thumbs sliding under the waistband of his dress pants as he tugged Steve closer again. They traded open-mouthed kisses as Bucky’s fingers caressed Steve’s skin, slid under his tank top, teased at the buttons to Steve’s trousers. Then his fingers undid the buttons on the trousers, then Steve’s underwear, and then he shoved the pants and underwear down in one go.Steve felt Bucky’s sudden shyness, the hesitance, so he reached out to undo Bucky’s shorts, and palmed at the large, very hard cock that sprang free.He moaned into Bucky’s mouth then, and suddenly Bucky’s hand was wrapped around Steve’s dick, and Steve thought he’d shoot off right there and then.

“Naked and on the bed would be good,” Steve sighed, shoving Bucky back toward the bed.

“Yeah?” Bucky chuckled, doing a little dance step to avoid getting tangled in his pants as Steve pushed off from the door to follow.

“Yeah.Might as well get comfortable,” Steve replied, his eyes dropping down to Bucky’s crotch and the uncut length of his cock swinging free as he walked backward to the bed. And then he flung himself backward to bounce on the bed and Steve thought he’d die a happy man just from the view.

Steve was practically cross-eyed with want for this man who grinned at him from the bed.He started to move toward him, but got tangled in the pants gathered around his ankles, and he went sprawling, down on hands and knees, much to Bucky’s loud amusement.Steve quickly sorted himself out, sitting on the carpet while he frantically kicked off shoes, socks, trousers, and underwear. And then he sprang back up, fully naked, and spread his hands as if to say, “Whaddya gonna do?”

“Get your ass over here, punk,” Bucky said then, patting the bed by his side.He was unashamed of his nakedness, lying there with his other arm resting on his knee, the other leg bent under, his cock and balls on full display. 

Steve smiled then, and did as he was told, happy to let Bucky take the lead.

&&&

The following morning, Steve woke to the sun streaming in through the curtains, the vague outline of the buildings across the street from the Astor showing through the gauzy curtains.He was sprawled on his stomach, starfished on the bed, feeling pleasantly boneless and sated in a way he hadn’t known was possible.

Last night had been ... well, maybe not perfect, but pretty fucking awesome.They’d groped and fumbled, got a little rough, or squeezed a little too hard, or rubbed a little too abrasively.Brought each other to heights they’d never imagined, laughed together, kissed a whole lot, and discovered new and wonderful things about each other’s bodies. He was tender in unexpected spots this morning, and more than a little messy.They’d discovered early on they could go again and again, and they’d tried to find their limits, only to have fallen asleep before they’d reached them.As Steve rolled over and stretched, he smiled to himself, imagining years in which they would have time to learn each other, discover how best to pleasure each other, how best to show their love.

But when he realized he couldn’t hear movement in the room, couldn’t feel Bucky’s presence, he felt dread weigh him down. 

Bucky was gone.

&&&

Steve had dressed and gone downstairs to the lobby to see if Bucky was having breakfast, but the dining room was absent one James Buchanan Barnes.Or rather, Robert Redford.He must have looked frantic, because the concierge, Thomas according to his name badge, waved him over, and informed him his companion had asked for walking directions to the Brooklyn Bridge, and had left the hotel shortly after.

“And might I add, sir, what a handsome looking couple you two make.You were the talk of the Astor Bar last night.”

“Um, thanks?” Steve replied, bemused.Here, in this haven within Manhattan, they could be more open about what they were to each other.This would be something he would miss about the 21st century for the next 50 or so years.He looked forward to the day when he would be able to walk down the street in New York, holding Bucky’s hand.March in Pride.But that day was not today.There were battles to come to be fought in that war, rights to be won, and hearts to be changed.It was a long road to equality, but he couldn’t imagine walking it with anyone but Buck.

He just hoped he felt the same way, and hadn’t decided that last night was a mistake.

He went back up to the room to grab his overcoat, and, armed with Thomas’s directions, made his way toward the Bridge.

He found him standing near the midway point of the Brooklyn Bridge, between the two towers, staring off toward Brooklyn at the opposite end of the Bridge.He leaned against the railing, smoking a cigarette, ignoring the swirl of foot traffic around him, and simply looked.

“Buck,” Steve greeted softly, bracing for heartbreak.

Instead, Bucky turned and smiled at him, his eyes lighting up at the sight of Steve.“Steve.Morning.I was hoping Thomas would send you to find me.”

Steve felt himself practically melt at the sight of that smile.“You were gone, I thought maybe you regretted -“

“No,” Bucky was quick to correct. “No.No, I’ll never regret.No.I thought, while we’re here ... I’d come out and say goodbye.Goodbye to the life I knew, my folks, our friends ... everything that was life in Brooklyn.‘Cos we’re goin’ back, right?To Switzerland?”

“For now, yeah.To regroup, to plan.Do more of what we did last night, I hope.”

“Oh yeah.A lot more of that.You can count on that, punk.I wish I could, you know - show you how much, here.Right now.But, yeah, definitely gonna be a whole lot more of that in our futures.So I figure this is the last time I’m gonna see New York for a long time, right?”Steve nodded.“So ... I’m sayin’ goodbye.Looking my fill while I can, so I can take this memory back with me.”

“I’m sorry, Buck.I know you miss your folks, your sisters -“

“They wouldn’t understand, Steve.I don’t think they’d be able to accept.Us, I mean.So better they think I died a war hero.They don’t need to know that I’ve found my happiness in a way they wouldn’t approve.‘Cos I choose you, too, Steve.I’ll always choose you.‘Til the end of the line, pal.”He stuck out his right hand to Steve, and Steve took it, shaking it firmly.It was the best they could do, out here, in the light of day and in full view of the residents of New York and Brooklyn passing by.

Steve smiled at Bucky, feeling the smile bloom in his heart and radiate out.Surely it could be seen from space, it was so big.“‘Til the end of the line, Buck.”

&&&

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go. I’m satisfied with this story and the way it honored Steve and Bucky’s story. I’m curious, though, to see how the changes Steve has triggered will affect the future ...
> 
> And if you’d like to read my other head canon regarding Endgame, check out my fic The Second Hundred Years.
> 
> As always, your kudos, your bookmarks, and your comments bring me joy. I hope this chapter brought you a little today as well.


	8. Stucky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which history is rewritten, and a love story for the ages is told.
> 
> This fills the A5 square of my Marvel Bingo - Stucky.
> 
> And how appropriate that the final chapter of my Stucky 100 be posted on Memorial Day. Five years ago on Memorial Day 2014, I posted my first Stucky piece, aptly named Memorial Day. I hadn’t planned this last chapter to post on Memorial Day 2019 when I started, but I’m pleased with the happy coincidence. Here’s to the next 100.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me a little longer to get here, but here we are at the end. I think this may be one of my favorite stories I’ve written.

They’d been together over ten years, and Steve didn’t think it was possible to be this happy.Certainly before his “do over,” he’d never suspected it was an option - happiness and Steve Rogers just hadn’t gone together.

But life with Bucky ... it might not be 100% perfect, but it was as close as he could hope for.And he was grateful for every moment. 

Their collaboration with Peggy had resulted in numerous Hydra bases across the globe being reduced to smoking rubble, a large amount of tech confiscated, personnel incarcerated, and human subjects and slaves liberated.Steve wasn’t naive enough to think they’d eradicated the fuckers from the planet yet, but he felt that the world was a safer place, not just for the general populace, but specifically for Buck.There’d been a time when Steve would have been frantic to have Bucky out of his sight, but nowadays, they lived a more or less normal life for two grown-ass men.And that left Steve feeling both proud and profoundly in love.

Peg had also managed to identify the facility where the Army kept their supply of Steve’s blood.It had been surprisingly easy for Steve and Bucky to infiltrate, but eliminating the store proved more problematic.They didn’t want to hurt anyone by destroying the facility, and they didn’t want to call attention to Steve’s blood by removing only that.In the end, they opted to swap out the vials of Steve’s blood with pig blood they’d gotten from their local butcher.With Jarvis’s help, they’d been able to bypass the security systems and leave no trace, and they walked out of the facility with all the vials, which they later destroyed using the suit weapons.The Army researchers assigned to replicate the super soldier project were in for a shock.And Steve felt confident they’d just prevented the creation of the Hulk, and the destruction of Bruce Banner’s life decades into the future.

They’d exposed Senator Joe McCarthy’s Communist witch hunt as a Hydra operation early on, discredited the senator from Wisconsin, and dismantled the House Committee on Un-American Activities before it could inflict any lasting damage to the very soul of the United States, or tothe Hollywood community (which some might argue had no soul).As a lifelong social Democrat, Steve had found the stories of McCarthyism especially frightening and disturbing.In the timeline Steve had left behind, the damage McCarthyism had done to the American psyche was deep and long-lasting, with after effects still felt in the 21st century and the ravening desire some had to eliminate programs like Social Security. 

So Steve considered especially satisfying the takedown on McCarthy and proving his committee to be influenced by enemies of the United States.It honestly hadn’t surprised him to discover it had all been a Hydra plot.

He had no idea how history was changing in small and large ways, but within the scope of his experience, they were making positive changes - or rather, they were eliminating negative influences.

They’d also been hunting down the vestiges of the Red Room.Surprisingly, Peg’s old nemesis Dottie Underwood - certainly not her real name, but the one she seemed to like - had been a great asset in tracking down the leaders of the organization.Dottie’s fascination with Peggy bordered on the obsessive, but the two women had achieved a kind of detente where Peggy recognized Dottie’s value as a strategic asset, and Dottie tried to parlay that into a semblance of friendship.In its own twisted sort of way, the relationship was working for the both of them at this point.

The dismantling of the Red Room was a personal mission for Steve.He loved the Nat he’d left behind with a passion, but if he could prevent her from ever being taken to the Red Room, if he could guarantee her a happy childhood and a bright future, it would be worthwhile never seeing her again.He wanted the best for her, and he would fight with everything in him to guarantee it for her, even if they never met in this altered future.

Peg and her SSR team had taken down Leviathan, Fenhoff, the Council, and several Hydra splinter groups in the US, all without physical assistance from Steve or Bucky.Steve wasn’t the least bit surprised at the incredible life that Peg built for herself.She’d always been larger than life to him, yet she had such empathy, such humility, while still being very much settled in her own skin.Steve looked forward to the tales of her exploits, and the quiet moments in between, like he’d looked forward to those radio serials as a kid.Her tussles with Jack Thompson.The growing attraction between her and Daniel Sousa.Her friendship with Angie Martinelli.Her partnership with Edwin and Ana Jarvis. The Adventures of Peggy Carter was his favorite story by far. 

Before Peggy and Daniel’s wedding in 1949, Peggy had asked Steve and Bucky for permission to tell Daniel about them.All they’d had to do was look at each other to know the answer had to be yes.You can’t have an authentic life full of real love if you’re keeping secrets from each other.Steve would’ve loved to have shared the day with them, but the risks of exposure were too great.Instead, he and Bucky had visited Peg and Daniel in Los Angeles, introduced themselves to Daniel, watched him pick up his jaw from the floor and flail like a fanboy, and given their blessing over a meal of fine food, good scotch, and even better company. 

They’d been working with both Peg and Daniel ever since, although Daniel still had moments where he was starstruck and silent.Steve would always be encouraging, while Bucky would flirt shamelessly.There was no dearth of little-shittedness in the Barnes-Rogers household.But the outrageous quality of Buck’s act would always pull Daniel out of his head and into the moment, and they’d get along just fine.Peg would just shake her head fondly at the stupidity of the men in her life, and organize them to be some semblance of adults.For a while at least.

They kept close tabs on the 107th, to ensure they didn’t cross paths - Dum Dum would’ve been terribly hurt to learn they’d both lived and hadn’t trusted him enough to bring him in on the secret. Fact was they didn’t trust him - Dum Dum could be a sloppy and maudlin drunk, and all it would take was the right amount of alcohol and the right comments or questions, and the whole world would know that Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes were both still alive and shacked up in a cabin in the Alps, and more recently on a small island off the coast of Greece.

Steve had finally come to revisit the decision not to tell Howard Stark of his and Buck’s survival, when they’d been reunited in 1952.Steve had been severely injured in a radiation incident in a Hydra facility outside Minsk.Howard had been the only living person with any understanding of the serum, and Bucky had been unwilling to consider risking permanent damage or worse. He’d demanded Peg bring Howard to Steve. Zola was buried so deep in an SSR facility off the grid, he’d never see the sun again, and that suited both Steve and Bucky just fine.But to this day, Steve didn’t know if Buck would’ve called on Zola if he’d been the only option, and he was glad they hadn’t had to face that particular demon.

But faced with both Barnes and Rogers, alive, reasonably well, working with both Peg and Sousa years after they’d been reported missing in action, presumed dead, Howard had borne the news stoically. No, that wasn’t true. He’d borne it silently, but the hurt and the anger boiled off him like flares off the sun.Peg and Daniel were targets for his pointed glares, too, since they’d both been among the very favored few (i.e., two) people who knew that Steve and Bucky still lived.He was only slightly mollified to learn the Dum Dum and the rest of the Howlies didn’t know, and after Steve started to recover, he’d tried to pump Steve for every crumb of technological information he could.Steve wouldn’t give anything up, and refused to let Howard even know what tech he had at his disposal, since that really would fuck with the timeline.

Finally, Steve had just thumped Howard gently on the crown of his head, and said, “I’m not giving you technology ahead of its time, Howard. I’m not gonna help you create a paradox or any such shit just because you’re not able to keep your curiosity in your pants.”

“Jesus, Steve. When did you get so mouthy?Where’s that polite boy from Brooklyn -“

“If you never heard this mook mouth off, then you never knew the real fuckin’ Steve Rogers.Yeah, sure, he can be as polite as his Ma and Father Garrett coulda made ‘im, but the mouth is all Steve, all Brooklyn,” Bucky interrupted with a snort.“You actually had all these people snowed, didn’t you?Captain America may be polite and watch his language, but Steve Rogers has a mouth on him.Always did, always will.Kinda grateful for what he can do with that mouth -“

“Buck!” Steve protested, then glanced nervously at Howard.

“No judgment,” Howard announced with a wave of his hand.“If the war taught us anything it’s that life is short and you should grab happiness when and where you can.Then again, for the pair of you, I think that life being short is probably not true.”

“No.In the future, my friends suspect the serum will cause our cells to keep renewing.Indefinitely.”

“Steve, a sample of your blood - it could hold the secrets to so many cures -“

“No.”

“Look, I know the samples the Army had were destroyed in a freak accident.And in a moment of weakness, I gave Peg the only sample I had left.But even just a couple of ounces -“

“No, Howard.You need to let that go.You need to let me go.”

“Pal, not gonna happen.Now I know you’re alive, Steve, c’mon - there’s so much we can do together -“

“Howard.No.You don’t need Captain America or Project Rebirth to give your life meaning.You have an incredible future ahead of you, discoveries and ideas - miracles -“

“Ah, I got that already.Nobody’s as smart as me.Except Abraham.The man was entirely unique, a towering intellect.And you contain -“

“Howard, I can’t allow you to fuck up your relationship with your son again over me.He was my friend, and I owe him a better life than that.”

“I have a son?”

“You will.”

“Does a wife come with that?”

“Your son loved his mother, Mrs. Howard Stark.I want him to have a chance to love his father, too, Howard.And that means he gets to grow up with you there, with him, not reliving your glory days with Captain America, your head stuck in the past.”

“That’s the real reason you didn’t want me to know you’re alive, isn’t it?”

Steve nodded solemnly.When Howard glanced over at Bucky, he was nodding as well.“You must really care for him.”

“I do.I did.Enough that I will probably never have the opportunity to know him now, because I want him to be happier this time around.You have to look to the future, Howard.Not the past.”

“Tell me about him.”

“I can’t. His future is yet to be written.”

“Is he as smart as me?I mean, will he be?”

“Smarter.”

Howard heaved a sigh then, smiling to himself.“Good. Good.And is he ... will he be ... I mean ... is he a good man?”

“One of the best,” Steve answered with absolute sincerity.

“Okay.Okay, I get it.And I guess I’m not mad anymore, either.Trust you to fuck history sideways for the greater good.All right.We’ll do it your way.I’m not gonna promise I won’t ever ask questions about the future, but I will promise I’ll take no for an answer.Maybe.You may have to remind me what’s at stake.”

“I will.”

&&&

After that, Howard had promised Bucky he’d look in on his family, since Bucky couldn’t be there to watch over them himself.Not long after, Howard announced his new protege, Rebecca Barnes, would be coming to work for Stark Industries with a full ride scholarship to MIT.The remaining Barnes siblings were also offered positions or education if they wanted it, and when asked why, Howard simply answered, “I knew your brother.He was one of the good ones.”

That made Howard an honorary Barnes, and he had admitted in a moment of weakness that that might be the most precious honor ever bestowed upon him.

So their circle of friends increased to four - Peg, Daniel, Howard, and his butler Jarvis.Howard had explained Edwin Jarvis’s role in his life, and given that Jarvis pretty much ran the better, saner parts of Howard’s life, Steve couldn’t really argue the point of including him in their group.Further, the Barnes clan had also adopted Jarvis, since he was often the one to deliver the latest largesse from Howard.That meant that Bucky had a steady diet of updates on his family, including a growing album of photos from Barnes family activities.

Knowing his family was doing well, was looked after, settled something in Bucky, then.He was different after that, happier, more carefree.And he’d picked up a typewriter, and he’d started to write again, tales of fancy and adventure like the pulps he’d loved as a kid,

The home they currently occupied was one of Howard’s, a villa on a small island off the coast of Greece.They still owned their mountain retreat in Switzerland, but both of them admitted it was nice to live somewhere warm.Howard insisted that having them live there meant he didn’t have to hire a local caretaker, and that being his guests at his various properties around the world would make it easier for them to transition from one “life” to another as they continued not to age.They were planning to mimic aging where they could, so they wouldn’t arouse suspicion, but they couldn’t alter their physiques, and they couldn’t shed their strength or their healing factor.So it was inevitable that at some point, they’d have to uproot themselves and move on to new identities.

In the meantime, they were settled comfortably into their current lives.Bucky wrote books, and Steve painted and did pen and ink illustrations, often for Bucky’s books.In between missions, of course.Howard had used some of his New York connections to get a literary agent to read Buck’s first book, which had led to an actual publishing contract.Buck had never lost his love for science fiction, and the genre had exploded in the years following Hiroshima.The cinemas were full of doomsday mushroom cloud films, and the number of scifi literary magazines had increased exponentially since they were kids.

Buck’s books proved to be very popular. Very popular indeed.His first book had done well, but his second book surged onto the New York Times bestseller list.And then the third did as well,and now he was working on a collection of short stories.Steve was so proud he could bust.And in love. Stupid in love.

&&&

Steve sat on a stool on the balcony of their villa, his easel perched so he could look out over the way the light reflected and refracted across the bay, and smiled.The view, the weather, the everything was just about perfect, made all the more so by the news he’d just received by phone.The only thing that would make it more perfect would be sharing it with Bucky, and he was due back from the village any time.

The phone rang again, and he hopped off his stool to answer it, thinking it might be Buck, letting him know he’d been delayed in town.Instead, it was Howard, freaking out over the news that Steve had just gotten.

“I can’t do this!” Howard exclaimed over the phone line. 

“Howard, you’re the smartest guy on the planet.You can do anything you put your mind to.”

“Not this, Steve.This is beyond my experience, beyond my ken.I just ... I just can’t.”

“Howard, what do you expect me to do about it?”

“I’m on my way to pick you two up.I can’t do it alone, but I can do it with your help.Well, mostly Barnes, but you can come along for the ride.”

“Howard, you’re weird.But picking us up actually sounds good.How soon will you be here?”

“I’ve been experimenting with a new form of rocket fuel.I should be there in six hours.”

“Howard, do we have any reason to be concerned about your fuel mixture?”

“Whatever do you mean, Steve?”

“You’re not gonna blow us up, are you?”

“Really, that would defeat the purpose of rocket fuel.It’s fuel, not explosive.”

“Howard, when was the last time you slept?”

“Sometime recently.”

“Fine, I’ll get the guest room ready.”

“I don’t need sleep, I just need some of that coffee Barnes likes.”

“We’ll talk about it when you get here, Howard.”

“Okay, okay.I’ll see you in six.”

“Looking forward to it.”

Steve replaced the receiver, and debated calling Peg then, but figured she had her hands full for the moment.He’d talk it over with Buck when he got back.

&&&

“Hey, handsome,” Bucky greeted silkily, sauntering out to the balcony where Steve struggled to capture the light that was beginning to slip away from him.

Steve shook his head in frustration and glanced over at Bucky, then did a double-take.“New haircut.”

“Yeah, Christos’s cousin just opened a new place, apparently he’s a graduate from some fancy barber college of something.So I gave him a try.Whaddya think?” he asked, doing a little spin to show off his new haircut - brushed back on the sides, long and a bit floppy on top, neatly trimmed in the back.

Steve reached up and ran his fingers through Buck’s hair and smiled.“Soft.I like it. Course, you could shave it all off, and I’d still think you were beautiful.But this, I like,” he tightened his hand around the hair and yanked a little, sending Bucky’s eyes fluttering back in his head as his mouth dropped open slightly.“And there’s that.I don’t get why you like it so much, but baby, the way you look ...”

Bucky smiled then, sly and sultry, and stepped into Steve’s space, his arms automatically reaching out to settled around Steve’s waist.“The way you make me look, you mean.Doll, what you do to me!”He leaned in to capture Steve’s lips in a kiss that was sensual and full of promise.

Steve returned the kiss with one of his own, smiling against Bucky’s lips.“I can think of things I’d like to do to you.We got a few hours ...”

“Few hours ‘til what?”

“Oh yeah.  Howard’s coming to pick us up.  He needs your help.  I get to come along as baggage.”

“Steve, you’re not making any sense, and if we’re on the clock, we gotta get movin’, chop-chop.”

“Peg had her baby.A boy.Daniel’s beside himself, he’s so excited.But Howard ... Howard is scared out of his mind. He wants us to go with him to visit Peg.”

“He’s coming half-way round the world so he doesn’t have to visit Peggy’s baby alone.”

Steve shrugged.“It means we get to see her and the baby.”

“Yeah, sure.Y’know, I think we’re gonna have to start training him.”

“Training him for what?”

“How to be a good father.His kid’s as important as you say he is, we can’t leave things to chance.”

“You know I love you, right?”

“Yeah, you tell me often enough.Why?”

“I think I just fell in love with you all over again.That’s a great idea.After.”

“Yeah, after.” Bucky smiled, broad, and pleased, and smug.

&&&

Twenty-five years later, newly minted Doctor of Jurisprudence Michael Sousa arrived at the jetty attached to the cottage Steve and Bucky shared on a small island off the coast of England, in the North Sea.He made his way up to the house, where his favorite uncles beamed at him.He’d been tasked by his mother with taking over the daily maintenance of their accounts and affairs, including helping them create new identities when circumstances demanded it.

He would carry on the tradition of partnership with the two ageless men, supporting them until it was time to pass the torch on to the next generation.But mostly, he was visiting two of his uncles at their new home, where they’d just settled into the identities his mother had organized.

He stepped into warm hugs from both of them, and then followed them into the house.

“How’s your Mom?Dad?”

“Both are fine, they send their love.Angie wants to know if you’re coming to her birthday.She’s being very particular about the guest list.And Rose wants you to be her date for junior prom.”

“Which one of us?”

“Both of you.Dad said something about her being greedy like her mother.I don’t think I want to know what that means.”

“Beats me.And how about your cousin?”

“You know we’re not really related, don’t you? But he’s doing fine.Uncle Howard spoils him.So Aunt Maria and Mom bring him back down to earth.He’s a good kid.Did you know he’s a huge Captain America fan?One of the New York stations ran a marathon of his movies a while back.Tony had to know everything there was to know about him. Uncle Howard even made him his own shield - out of vibranium, no less.He was beyond thrilled to know that Uncle Howard actually knew him.Mom, too.Can you imagine?” Michael asked, the trademark Carter twinkle in his eye.

“Actually?I honestly can’t.”

“You ever going to let him know who you are?”

“We’ll be there when he needs us.If he needs us.”

“And the world? If the world needs you?”

“Then, too.But for now, how about some lunch?Buck’s been dying to try out a new recipe on you ...”

“See?This.This is why you’re my favorite uncles.”

Bucky slung his arm around Steve’s shoulders, and kissed his temple, grinning at Peggy’s oldest child. 

They had a good life, with good friends and family.And the best was yet to come.

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Love wins. I like to think everybody wins. Except Hydra. Hydra doesn’t get to win here. Neither does hate. As I was writing this chapter, I realized that a lot of the attitudes currently plaguing American culture have their roots in the McCarthy era. The deep distrust and negative connotations of socialized services. The demonization of points of view that are different. The almost psychotic need to define normal, and destroy anything that doesn’t fall into that very, very narrow and extremely subjective definition. The world would’ve been a better place without Joe McCarthy and his particular brand of hatred.
> 
> In grateful memory of those who served and have passed on, in grateful thanks to those who continue to serve, to preserve the peace and protect the right to choose. To those who ended McCarthyism, who fought and fight for freedom who fought and fight for equality, acceptance, kindness - who stand against the darkness.
> 
> Bucky’s all on board for “hug a veteran today” - he’s loving up on Steve. :)

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I know I’m blowing up history. But that history was Hydra’s design, and the more I thought about it, the more I was comfortable with excising Hydra’s influence from history. YMMV, and that’s your choice - just as what I’ve written is mine.
> 
> Thoughts, comments, theories, kudos are welcome.


End file.
